Sources say a number of suspects acquired away with the cameras and reminiscence techniques retrofitted to the automobiles of an R practice after an apparently botched try and take the practice for a joyride.
Sources say the incident was found Sunday when crews found that two separate R trains parked alongside a bit of lay-up monitor between the Briarwood and Sutphin Blvd. stations on the F line had been touching and had sustained some injury to their couplers.
Information recorders on one of many trains — a 10-car set of R160 subway automobiles — point out it had been began and moved with out authorization on Saturday, apparently earlier than colliding into the second practice at low pace.
When transit employees boarded the practice to attempt to pull surveillance footage, they found that each one 22 of the practice’s surveillance cameras — which had been retrofitted to older mannequin automobiles just like the R160 over the previous few years — had been lacking, together with their reminiscence playing cards.
At the least one digital camera was additionally stolen from the automobile on the second practice that had been ran into, sources stated.
Cops estimated the lacking surveillance gear price $12,000. The extent of the injury to the trains’ couplers was not instantly clear, however sources stated the pace of the collision was low.
All New York Metropolis subway automobiles have been geared up with safety cameras since December, the results of a 2022 directive from Gov. Hochul to retrofit surveillance know-how to each subway automobile within the fleet.
“They’re gold — they pay dividends every day,” MTA’s head of safety, Michael Kemper, stated of the surveillance techniques Thursday at a subway security press convention.
This weekend’s incident is the most recent in a spate of subway automobile break-ins.
In January, a bunch of teenagers broke right into a pair of R trains parked alongside lay-up tracks in Brooklyn and took them for a joyride.
In that occasion, the teenagers both spray-painted or in any other case lined the trains’ surveillance cameras.
Initially Revealed: Might 1, 2025 at 5:21 PM EDT